The Whole “Getting High” Thing

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t is very common when you hear the topic of marijuana – especially medical marijuana – to discuss the need to find a way to get the benefits (usually through synthetic attempts at reproducing the plants compounds) without the “high”. Our question is, why the hell is that something we need to even worry about? People are addicted to all kinds of legal, government-approved, chemical substances that they are given by their doctor. Many of these produce an effect that actually causes real, physical, textbook addiction. Prescription painkiller addictions are quickly becoming epidemic in the US and Canada with thousands of overdose deaths reported each year. People don’t deal and sell Oxycontin because it simply takes the sensation of pain away. It produces an effect that they get hooked on in a very real, physical sense. This leads to all kinds of social impacts. We personally know of someone who was held at gunpoint as the pharmacy they worked at was robbed of its Oxycontin (this is such an issue today that many pharmacies will no longer stock the drug and post signs to that effect) as well as someone who has had a child spend years in jail after stealing, getting hooked on and selling prescription painkillers as a teenager and young adult.

So, in essence, this legally-prescribed substance, blessed by the U.S. government, is causing thousands of deaths each year. It literally has become a serious menace in society. Meanwhile, marijuana is only proving to have more and more positive effects, and the negative effects – if any – are minor and easily manageable. How can the facts so clearly contradict the message being delivered to us and things not drastically change overnight?! Well, we believe it is rooted firmly in the misinformation and propaganda-formed opinions that the public has held regarding this plant since the 1930′s, intensified in the 1970′s through today. Does marijuana cause feelings of euphoria? Yes. Does it cause you to become addicted and a whacked out “druggy”? No! For more information on this myth, we encourage you to read our article here. This whole idea that somehow the pleasurable aspect of marijuana – which your body has evolved (or been created) to experience through naturally occurring receptors to the compounds present in cannabis – should be weeded out (pun intended) seems ludicrous. Do we tell distilleries and breweries that they need to remove the part of the their products that make people happy? No, that is the whole point of consuming them typically.

So, we have a substance that is being shown time and time again to be not only safer than many of the medications, foods and alcohol that the government has told you is approved, healthy and even good for you, but also beneficial to health and the treatment of vast, growing number of medical, physical, and psychological issues. And yes, it just so happens to lift people’s mental state, impacting such issues as depression in very positive ways. And the idea is to somehow reduce these effects? That makes no sense. If that is the case, then the FDA should systematically go through every medication and insist that their manufacturers do the same. But that isn’t going to happen.

We are not saying that these types of investigations and research activities aren’t beneficial. We want everyone who would benefit from marijuana to have access to it in whatever form and with whatever effects they desire. But to turn pleasure, peace and lifted spirits into something to be avoided and eradicated from cannabis is stupid. Punishing pleasure, when individuals and society as a whole aren’t being harmed, seems counterproductive to the foundations of our national identity. Benjamin Franklin once said “Wine is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.” You can buy countless signs, posters, and knick-knacks for your home that display that quote, and people who read it smile and agree – wine makes you feel good. We think it is high time (again, pun intended) that saying “Cannabis is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy!” should be equally accepted. Because whether you know it or not, science and medicine continue to demonstrate that it is actually even safer than that wine we love so much and makes us feel so good.

The problem isn’t marijuana. It simply is not dangerous or addictive. Science holds up that statement, not just emotion or biased opinion. The problem is what you have been taught about it. Everything you have been told has been built upon a model of greed (read our article on the history of marijuana and prohibition in the U.S. here; and listen to similar information here, and here) and control. There is no marijuana problem. People consuming marijuana and getting “high” is not a problem. Prohibition though? That’s a problem that has spawned countless other problems that we are paying for out the nose at every turn.